Israel-Gaza news: UN assembly backs new plea for Palestine to become full member

The Biden administration said yesterday that Israel’s use of US-provided arms in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law, but added that the evidence for determining it was incomplete.

US said it had “reasonable” evidence that Israel breached international law protecting civilians in how it conducted its war against Hamas.

But the Biden administration said it wasn’t able to link specific US weapons to individual attacks by Israeli forces in Gaza.

The first-of-its-kind assessment comes following over seven months of Israel invading Gaza with airstrikes, ground fighting and aid restrictions that have claimed nearly 35,000 Palestinian lives, mostly women and children.

Australia’s support for Palestine’s bid to become a full UN member would build momentum towards peace in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the country’s foreign minister Penny Wong said today.

Australia, along with an overwhelming majority of the UN General Assembly, backed the resolution to effectively recognise a Palestinian state and recommended that the Security Council “reconsider the matter favourably”.

“At the UN General Assembly, 143 countries including Australia voted for a resolution to grant the Palestinian mission a modest extension of participation rights,” Ms Wong posted on X today.

“We all know one vote on its own won’t end this conflict – it has spanned our entire lifetimes – but we all have to do what we can to build momentum towards peace,” Ms Wong said.

Nine countries including the US and Israel voted against the bid, while 25 abstained.

“We continue to condemn Hamas’ terrorist attack of 7 October, and the call for the immediate release of all hostages. We reiterate our consistent calls for a humanitarian ceasefire so that aid can increase and civilians can be protected,” Ms Wong said.

South Africa urged the United Nations’ top court Friday to issue more emergency measures to restrain Israel, saying its military incursion in Rafah threatens the “very survival of Palestinians in Gaza.”

A review by the Biden administration of Israel’s use of US-provided weapons in its war in Gaza does not conclude that Israel has violated the terms for their use, according to three sources.

The report, due to be released soon, is expected to be sharply critical of Israel, but falls short of saying Israel violated terms of US-Israel weapons agreements, according to one US official.

The administration’s findings on its close ally’s conduct of the war was the first-of-its-kind assessment compelled by President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats in Congress.

The few remaining hospitals in Rafah are at 250 per cent capacity, while food and fuel are running out, the United Nations warned, as heavy fighting moves towards the centre of Gaza’s border city. Bel Trew reports:

The UN General Assembly has voted by a wide margin to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and called on the Security Council to reconsider its request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.

The United States voted against it, along with Israel, Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Papua New Guinea.

The vote reflected the wide global support for full membership of Palestine in the United Nations, with many countries expressing outrage at the escalating death toll in Gaza and fears of a major Israeli offensive in Rafah, a southern city where about 1.3 million Palestinians have sought refuge.

While Friday’s resolution gives Palestine some new rights and privileges, it reaffirms that it remains a non-member observer state without full UN membership and the right to vote in the General Assembly or at any of its conferences.

Heavy fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants was under way on Friday in northern Gaza, where Hamas appeared to have once again regrouped in an area where Israel has already launched punishing assaults.

This is as well as the fighting on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Israel’s move into Rafah has been short of the full-scale invasion that it has planned. But the heavy fighting has shaken the city and spread fear that a bigger assault is coming.